"Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent."

Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, critic of American life and culture, and scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. Many of his books remain in print.

Mencken also was prescient:

"As Democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

But this is not about Mr. Mencken.

Rather it is about some unknown individual who committed the following to the email world:

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the only school curriculum allowed to explain how we got here is evolution, but the government stops a $15 million construction project to keep a rare spider from evolving to extinction . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested “homes” . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to incentivize NOT working with 99 weeks of unemployment checks and no requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, TV’s and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government . . . you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

These days there is a lot of talk of a coming revolution. Personally I do not tolerate such talk - no matter how bad things are they would be ten thousand times worse if the United States dissolved and we descended into civil war.

I have seen such wars and believe me - we do not want this here.

The fact of the matter is that a revolution has been underway in our country for a very long time, and we are very close to losing it. We actually are (or should be) the counter-revolutionaries.

"Once people figure it out, they're going to do what people everywhere do: they're going to start protesting, and they're going to start revolting, and when that happens, that's when the powers that be feel threatened, and they use the power that they have."

The Kalishikov series of weapons are the most prolific assault rifle in the world; they are present in every single conflict on Earth. The AK is rugged, robust and absolutely utilitarian in nature. It is often stated that the AK can be fabricated in a primitive workshop, but few people can appreciate how this is actually accomplished.

This photo essay of an anonymous Kalishnikov fanatic came to me via the email machine. I don't know who he is or where he operates, but the guy can work metal. Here's how he converted a shovel into an AK-47 variant, using metal at hand, a few parts and primitive tools.

I saw a lot of improvisation in the former Yugoslavia, but nothing like this. - S.L.

Comrade takes your standard one (each) M1A1 shovel . . .

Start with some basic hacksaw work:

To anneal the shovel and pound it flat enough, fire up the homemade furnace and add some waste motor oil to get to higher temps.

The layer of oxide is completely industructable.

To get rails straight, the trick is to bend them first:

Comrade uses an angle grinder to trim and grind them but the same thing could be achieved with a flat bastard - just take a hundred times longer and a helluva lot more sweat.

Comrade reports: "Receiver came out as straight as Liberace in drag thumbing through gay porn magazines. I do not however discriminate between straight AK receivers and those that chose different orientation."

Next, receiver is bent just like a regular AK receiver from a blank:

Comrade even added Maadi style dimples:

Various holes were cut free hand with plasma torch - same thing could be accomplished with bowdrill, files and a LOT of time:

Comrade fits a trunnion:

A few strips of shovel left after cutting the top rails:

Comrade just eyeballed them to get close enough and sandblasted them for welding onto receiver:

Receiver is a bit thicker than regular AK receiver flats, so spotwelding does not work out too well; Comrade cuts 1/4 inch holes to weld rails through:

Cut out the selector key hole:

Then the rails are welded around and to the receiver:

Looks good.

Now for the barrel: an AK barrel blank ($30), profiled trunnion end, chambered and cut extractor wedge. The chamber is definitely not a precision job. Comrade lobs off the end of the blank to bring overall length to 16.25"

Here is a pic of an AK receiver and Shovel AK receiver. The latter is almost 2.5 times thicker - Comrade reports he tried to pound some dents out of the receiver and the hammer got dented!

For all you AR fan boys, this is what M16 and AK receivers look like after they've been run over by a tank:

You cannot bend this back:

Comrade rivets a whole bunch more sh*t:

Sight block, gas block and front sight were just welded onto the barrel.

Comrade has a supply of used furniture, like this gas tube with "Mihaela" on it and 12 notches.

I don't get it, Mihaela is a Romanian female name and the guy only scored 12 of them.

Gas port drilled after gas block welded in place:

Assembly complete:

Comrade straps on cheap scope with a double rail and since he had a second rail added a cheap laser to go with it. Time to go to the range and put this thing through her paces.

Comrade reports:

The bolt on the scope needed periodic tightening, and the laser took off after about 20 rounds. After 50-60 rounds, the barrel was slightly warm. The height adjustment knob on the scope would sometimes click and sometimes not until it came off; after that it adjusted just fine.

10 round group at 50 yards using 40 year old ammo that came from a spam can, not a handload.

She possessed both a concealed carry permit and a Glock 9mm; but she wasn’t carrying the night she was attacked because to do so would have been illegal — she was walking on a college campus — a “gun free zone.”

And she was brutally raped in October of 2007 at the University of Nevada-Reno within sight of a police station just 50 feet away:

Saturday, February 23, 2013

D-Day started early for Sgt. Jake McNiece and his fellow paratroopers. Not long after midnight on June 6, 1944, they parachuted behind German lines just ahead of the invasion of Normandy. Their goal was to destroy Nazi supply lines and escape routes. Some called it a suicide mission. The paratroopers called themselves the Filthy 13.

They were a skilled group, trained as the Demolition Section of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. But they were not the most disciplined of soldiers. They disobeyed orders, bathed infrequently and often disappeared from their barracks for long, liquid and sometimes violent weekends. If they received promotions, odds were good they would eventually be demoted again.

“He spent a lot of time in a stockade,” Hugh McNiece said of his father, “and he was O.K. with that.”

Jake McNiece died on Jan. 21 at his son’s home in Chatham, Ill. He was 93 and had lived most of his life in Ponca City, Oklahoma.